Stuff Christians Like #21: Parenting Poetry

Everyone knows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and there are few places that this is more true than in the church world.  For instance, have you ever been invited to a party where everyone is part of the same group of friends, but you only know the host?  It’s awkward walking in to begin with, especially if you do not have a date, but it gets really awkward if people hit too much of the happy juice and karaoke is suggested.

   What then ensues, becomes frightening for the new kid on the block, b/c usually some quite marginally talented people will begin to sing or play the random guitar in the corner.  Since you’re the only outsider, you are the only one who notices how BAD the “art” is.  The rest of the group, suffering from the frog in the kettle analogy, love their dear friends, and subsequently will seem immune to what their music or poetry actually sounds like.  It’s like wandering into the wrong family reunion, or being forced to hear someone’s kid (whom you don’t know) sing the ABC’s on voicemail, when all you want is to leave a message. 

   Church is often like this.  When you walk in, (even you are a church transfer) everyone will be beaming at the stage or the bulletin & b/c they have a relationship with the one reading the poem or singing the song, & they think it’s great.  Of all these “pieces,”  the most difficult for the outsider to translate can be parenting poetry.

  Many new church attendees have had this experience countless times.  They run into an old college buddy with whom they used to follow indie bands, write papers with, and go with to the Art museum; but who is now a young Christian parent.  The new friend begins to attend church, is soon on the listserv, and we all know what happens next: EMAIL FORWARDS.  Since the subject line reads poem, and they remember fondly your indie rocker days, the old friend/new church visitor expectantly clicks on the link…. WHAT?! WHAT IS THIS?! IS THIS A JOKE? WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? WAS IT THE HAVING A BABY PART, OR THE HAVING A CHURCH PART THAT BIRTHED THIS BEAUTIFUL ART?

   If you are even mildly amused then you have received one of these poems or heard them read aloud at a Bible Study or on Mother’s Day by the junior church kids standing on risers. If the humor is still lost on you, I took the liberty of writing my own piece of Christian Parenting Poetry, that is both Reader’s Digest & Church listserv worthy.  Enjoy.

The smudges come in with only a whisper

The tiny tot touches everything near her.

Her mother throws her dish towel down in vain!

How will she ever be rid of this stain?!

 

She scrubs and she scrubs to no avail,

The tot sees mommy’s brow and wails.

“I’m sorry mommy, but don’t you remember our day?

I sat in my seat of the grocery cart to play.

 

Then the lady who gives out all the balloons,

Said mother’s day was coming up on us soon.

So while you were cleaning the furniture parts,

I painted and colored you these special hearts.”

 

The mommy sighed as her daughter yelled with vibrato,

And she finally remembered her grandma’s wise motto.

Cleaning up fingerprints while they’re still growing,

Is like shoveling the sidewalk while it’s still snowing.

 

 

Temporary Re-route

For those of you keeping up with our time in Cambodia you’ll need to go to our temporary site to see our posts. Internet is very slow here so it’s too much energy to upload photos twice etc. So until we return check out our photos and posts about Cambodia at http://bakersincambodia.wordpress.com.

Chasing the Daylight to Cambodia

Today I had an experience I’ve never had before, I saw the same sunrise two times.  In our flight to Cambodia we left New York at midnight to fly to Anchorage Alaska.  There we saw the sunrise for the first time.  Shortly after we took off to fly to Taipei in Taiwan.  Over the pacific we caught back up to the night and then experienced the same day’s sunrise laer on that morning as we flew south west to Taipei.  

 

A few other (semi) interesting things:

1.  I saw a series of Hello Kitty Airplanes in Taipei.  2. The restroom in Anchorage was filled with lots and lots of people brushing their teeth.  3.  At the time I’m writing this we have now been traveling for 31 hours straight since leaving the kids in Scranton. 4. China Airlines has very spooky videos of people stretching that they run before you land.  They look like they’ve been brainwashed but that they’re pretty happy about it.  5.  We’re now on the 6th movie of the trip. 6. Amy’s already read two and a half books, I’ve read one and a half.  7. breakfast on china airlines consisted of something called “pork kunckles,” with some hardboiled/pickled egg and a roll with butter. (picture of that to come)

  Our first day in Cambodia was a bit of shocker, but amazing. Everything is so colorful and you can see the strong Buddhist influence in the architecture everywhere.  We went from downtown NYC, to Alaska, to Taipei (very nice & clean), to people begging for food in Phnom Penh, just a day and a half from leaving the comfort of home.  The capital is full of interesting people, pagoda’s (temples), and is a city beginning to become more globalized.  Tomorrow we go to worship with an international church, and today we took a tour of the Mekong river by boat.  We will post more later and upload some pictures once we find a USB cord!

Lay Over in Alaska

Hi Everyone

We are in the airport in Anchorage, Alaska, and it’s killing me that our trip does not stop here so that we can climb something!  But, on we go to Tai Pei! (12 hrs.) and then to Cambodia ( 2hrs. more). Our flight was hilarious b/c we flew china airlines which felt like we already left the US, group Chinese stretching exercises on the screen and such. We’ll post more later.

Heading to Cambodia!

Tomorrow, Meade & I are flying to Cambodia as the final leg of his MDIV degree from Biblical Theological Seminary.  The MDIV program he completed was done in a cohort format, where you are with the same group of people for three years for all of your classes & two retreats.  At the end, you are required to go on a trip with your cohort overseas, (spouses are encouraged to go) and our group was scheduled for Cambodia. 

   Our kids are staying with my family in Scranton, as we head from JFK to Alaska, to Taipei, to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  As we are traveling we will be posting periodically on what we are experiencing in Southeast Asia.  As a preface to our trip, we wanted to share a bit about the history & climate of this place.  Although it was the site of one of the worst genocides in modern history, we as westerner’s are frighteningly unaware of it.  I have to admit, despite graduating from a great High School, the first time I learned of what happened in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, I was in Human and Cultural Diversity class at Philadelphia Biblical University.  

    We were having a class discussion regarding which Biblical principle prevails with illegal immigration: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and God what is God’s,” or “any man who does not care for his family has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (paraphrase).  Predictably, most of the students in the class were ardently arguing that no matter how horrid the situation in your home country, you need to follow the law.  The professor let the discussion escalate, when suddenly a Cambodian girl sitting near me, began to exclaim loudly how most of her family was dead, slaughtered during the genocide, and her parents escaped to the US with her as a young child.  As you can imagine, that changed the tone considerably.  Following that class, I began to read about their painful past, and was shocked that I had heard nothing about it until that time. 

    Here is an excerpt from a book of required reading for the trip:

“Cambodia was once known as “The Land of Paradise.” Most of the Khmer people led a peaceful, harmonious existence cultivating rice in the countryside.  In the past five decades, Cambodia has been turned upside down.  In 1941 Prince Norodom Sihanouk became king, and managed to bring the country to full independence by 1953.  One year after that he relinquished his throne to his father, and entered the political arena. During that time, he tried to keep Cambodia out of the war being fought in neighboring countries. He seemed reasonably successful in dealing with the external political pressure, but he failed to manage the internal political factor.  Internally he was opposed by both the leftist Khmer Rouge (or Khmer Communist) led by Pol Pot, and by the rightists (his own govt.) 

     In early 1970 the king was overthrown and the monarchy abolished. B/w 1970 & 1975 civil war raged throughout Cambodia.  The country was engulfed by the Khmer Rouge soldiers, and the govt. grew totally corrupt.  Many who hated corruption were psychologically coerced into joining the Khmer Rouge to fight the govt. of the republic.  In 1975, the Khmer Rouge captured the whole country.  

      Soon after the Khmer Rouge took over, they turned Cambodia into the “Land of Killing Fields.”  People were evacuated from the cities to work in the countryside.  Life under the Khmer Rouge’s merciless regime became meaningless and worthless.  During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, it is estimated that two million Cambodian people were killed.”

   Essentially what happened was that Pol Pot’s regime was that they forced all people of power or position & education into labor camps or executed them outright.  The scary part is that as you learn more you wonder how they were able to wipe out an entire class of people, but what happened was that following the take over, they summoned all people of position to government buildings.  The tag line was that the new regime wanted to negotiate peace & reassign govt. positions, so folks came unarmed in good faith, and were then captured. 

     So now, the country is rebuilding itself and is turning the corner, but is plagued by lingering effects of the genocide, human trafficking, and poverty.  Although that is dark, I am super excited to see Cambodia. We will be visiting Angkor Wat,         

 the National Palace, and a number of other sites.  I have heard nothing but great things about the people and the house churches we are visiting, so we are really excited.

Book Review: Lush Life by Richard Price

I am a complete literary snob, so I do not exactly dole out accolades for many books that reach the bestseller list in America. Lush Life, is a huge exception. The reason I tend to be lukewarm about many books is because of the lack of character development, mediocre depictions of conversations, or a simplistic plot. Most books seem to have one of the positive sides of those, and at best two of those qualities, but Lush Life has all three. It is the story of a murder of a young aspiring actor in the rapidly gentrifying lower east side, the impact it has on a neighborhood, a police precinct, and the dead man’s family.

At first glance, Lush Life is a gripping, gritty NYC detective story; a “who-dun-it” for the 21st Century, but that is just the momentum of the basic story line. When you weave in Price’s uncanny skill at writing dialogue, his history of the neighborhood, and creating a movie like background for your mind with his words, it elevates it to another level.

Under the surface, what Lush Life is really about is the gentrification of the Lower East Side in NYC. The book has an almost journalistic feel b/c Price offers no opinion on whether or not he is for or against gentrification, he merely takes the imbedded reporter approach as the narrative shifts from the cops patrolling the streets, to the first and second generation immigrants, the hipsters trying to make it at their crafts, and the adolescents who see no options outside of gang life. The best part about the book is the way the story line drifts between the clashing of interests of each group vying for jobs, opportunities, and real estate.

The one thing that held me as the reader back from finishing more quickly was the grittiness of the book. There is minor violence, and although the plot draws you in, and makes you want to stay up late to finish one last chapter, I often found myself putting it down. Not because I was weary of it, but because it was a little like watching Law & Order SVU for way too many episodes in a row. For someone more hardened, than my ’softie’ self, this would likely not be an issue.

Finally Done

After three years of never reading the books I want to and a week typing nonstop I finally handed in my last assignment for Seminary.  I feel like the guy who crosses the finish line then starts to weep curled up on the ground, a withered husk of what he was when he began.  I’m going to bed, I think I slept 7 of the past 48 hours but I can’t do complicated math like that when I’m this exhausted. 

Innovative Recycling

Most people know that my husband and I are die-hard recycler’s!  So much so, that our son’s pre-school in Wallingford asks us to carry home the recycling for the class each week b/c their township does not pick it up.  That is funny for two reasons… 1.) Wallingford is next to Media which is America’s first fair trade coffee town, so why they don’t have recycling is a mystery to me, and  2.) They asked us, knowing we’d say yes.   Sometimes I have to laugh at myself.

  Anyways, in the spirit of the recent passing of Earth Day, I thought I’d pass on a suggestion from failblog.wordpress.com on a way that you can take recycling to the next level.  If you are one of those moms that is always stretching the life cycle of your children’s clothing by cutting off the footsies to your kids pj’s when they grow or cutting the arms off of sweaters to transform them into sweater vests, you will particularly appreciate this tip. 

 

Adoption & Health Care

   I rarely post anything that is truly personal and not a joke, so here goes a first… Many of our blog readers know that we have two kids, our three year old son was adopted from Guatemala, and our two year old daughter is home grown.  In the past two months, our son, who has lingering minor health issues related to adoption, had an MRI, requiring full sedation, and was diagnosed with a common US illness, Asthma, that requires him to occasionally use a nebulizer machine to aid in breathing.  This past weekend, our daughter spent two nights in the hospital with an unexpected bout of pnuemonia, both events with both of our kids were really frightening.  It is just scary to watch your kids struggle to breathe.

         Yet, despite the stress of the situations, I could not help but constantly think about my son’s birthmother and the conditions in his home country.  In the region of Guatemala, where he is from 50% of kids will not live until the age of 7.  That’s insane! Practically speaking, that would mean that one of my kids would die before the age of 7, I cannot comprehend the anxiety that places on a parent. I got nervous today b/c my daughter has a slight sunburn!   Suddenly verses about the sovereignty, peace, and love of God become a whole lot more intense.  Asthma can be hereditary, so I was not shocked at his diagnosis because he was named after his older birth brother who died from bronchitis.  We have been slowly introducing this fact to our son through a book we wrote him about his adoption, and it’s so fascinating to watch him process how he became a part of our family.  He is constantly asking questions like, “why didn’t I grow in mommy’s tummy?” ”where is that other lady?” “why did I have to be adopted?”   & statements like, “I am brown, mommy is white, but J (our babysitter) is brown & L (another babysitter) is black.”  

  Most of the time I answer his questions with a 3 year old level answer and he moves on to conquering the worms in our yard or playing with toys, and I forget about it.  Lately though, I just keep wondering.. what would have happened to him if he was still in Guatemala?  Would his brother have lived if he had access to our health care?  Seeing as bronchitis was the culprit, the answer is almost a guaranteed yes! It absolutely kills me that while I could rush my 2 year old to medical care within minutes of breathing problems, and then be transferred to specialty care via ambulance to a children’s hospital, our son’s birthmom likely had zero options with his brother.   Where is 911 in a developing nation?  It is so sobering, and makes me question, how serious am I about my faith?  If I were in her position, what would my view of God be? Would I pray incessently, or feel a loss of hope and leave my faith behind?  It’s difficult to know because so much of my life is so cozy and protected from struggle. Even in both my children’s hospital experiences, I had people handing me food, a place to sleep, and basically catering to our whims.

         It is all, of course, speculation, but I am so thankful for God’s providence, his role as sustainer, and the option his birthmother had for adoption.  What a brave, loving, selfless person she must be, and how full of hope!  I think I am posting this publicly b/c I will likely never have the opportunity to tell her myself.  So anyways.. if you have ever thought of adoption, feel free to ask us questions,  we cannot wait to do it again! (it will be awhile, don’t get excited

I’m Feeling Lucky

I had a random idea. I use google image a lot for the pictures at the tops of each blog post and I though it might be interesting if I typed in different words and phrases and posted the first picture google image gives me for each one. Kind of like if I said what image pops into your mind when I say “southerner” except this time instead of a human brain its the internet. I wanted to see if the internet would follow the same stereotypes our minds do since it’s our creation.

Here are the results. You’ll be especially interested in the searches for “liberal church” and “conservative church.”

Search Term: Baptist Pastor

Search term: Presbyterian Pastor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search term: Methodist Pastor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search Term: Pentecostal Pastor

 

 

 

 

 

Search Term: Mac User

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Search term: PC User

Search Term: Christian Missionary

Search Term: Evangelical

Search Term: Evangelist

Search Term: Emerging Church

Search Term: Liberal Church

Search Term: Conservative Church